


A petpet for a pet

by Caprice (Argentee)



Category: Neopets
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pet Store, Shopping, Short One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-05-24
Updated: 2000-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 10:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18939478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argentee/pseuds/Caprice
Summary: Paintbrushes are expensive, but a petpet is much more affordable. But Jehanne the Aisha has a different idea about what makes a good petpet.This is fanfic written back in 2000 or 2001 that I recently stumbled across cleaning out an old backup drive. I'm archiving it under a Pseudo, along with any other works of the time period that I might stumble across. This work is tooth-rotting fluff and proof that I will write about anything, even with no real chance anyone will read it. The only editing has been some spelling corrections and formatting it for Ao3.





	A petpet for a pet

Jehanne the Aisha was nestled down quite happily in her mom’s arms. Today had been a long series of errands, rushing from the bank, to the auction house, to the trading post, and then finally off to Faerieland. Her mom sighed unhappily, and finally confessed what all the fuss had been about. “I’m sorry, Jehanne baby… I just can’t afford to get you a faerie paintbrush.”

Jehanne sat up, and butted her cheek against mom’s for a cuddle. “Don’t care,” she muttered, and really she didn’t. Jehanne was firmly convinced that an Aisha was the very best thing to be. Fancy colors and such didn’t matter, and she was happy to have spent a day with her mom being carried and cuddled.

Suddenly, mom stood up straighter. “Well, if I can’t get you a faerie paintbrush, I can still afford to get you a faerie petpet. It will give you someone to play with.” With a determined expression, she carried Jehanne off to the petpet store. Once inside, Jehanne leapt down so she could explore properly.

The shop was filled with all sorts of interesting sounds. Musical warbling, sweet whistles, soft mrrs and mews, and gentle coos filled her ears. While her mom chatted with the earth faerie in charge of the shop, Jehanne went off after the source of the coos. Chattering was too loud, whistling too sharp, and she was the champion purr-er in the family, but something that cooed in harmony with her purrs… that sounded perfect to Jehanne. She found herself peering into a tall glass case with a lid on top, filled with floating pink shapes. A panic seemed to take control of most of them, and they swam furiously through the air to the other side of the case, except for one. One petpet bobbed over until it was nose-to-nose with Jehanne through the glass. Jehanne purred, and the petpet cooed back in harmony. “Mommy! What’s this one?”

Jehanne’s mom hurried over. “Um… that’s a Floud honey… Come over here, they’ve got a nice faellie I want you to see.”

“A floud…” Jehanne’s voice was a thoughtful murmur, as she considered the matter. “Mommy, I want a floud.” She corrected herself, “I want THIS floud.”

Jehanne’s mom frowned a bit, “But I was thinking a faellie, or maybe a harris.”

“I want THIS floud,” Jehanne insisted, “Her name is Swishy.” Before her mom could voice any more objections, the store’s faerie had come over and opened the lid of the case. Swishy headed up out of the case, and then down to Jehanne, hovering between her ear-stalks and cooing happily.

The earth faerie smiled at the pair, “They seem to be perfect together. Why don’t you come over to the register while they get acquainted?” Jehanne’s mom looked down at the giggling, cooing pair, and reached for her purse, giving in to the inevitable.

Jehanne spent the whole trip home peering up at her new floud, afraid that if they got separated she’d never find Swishy again. After all, flouds didn’t have a neck you could put a collar on, and Swishy didn’t know where they lived yet. As soon as they were in the front door, however, Jehanne leapt down from her mom’s arms and ran to her room, “Follow me, Swishy!”

Jehanne took great pride in her room, with its carefully picked furniture and her large collection of toys. “These are my keyrings, Swishy,” She said indicating the pegboard of neatly hung keyrings, sorted by some system only Jehanne understood. Next to the pegboard were two bookshelves full of plushies, sorted by color, blue at the top. “And these are my plushies… I collect the blue ones, the other ones are for playing with.” Swishy seemed to consider this, her whole body floating at a slight angle like someone listening with her head tilted, then swam over to the shelf and settled herself in beside a pink poogle plushie.

Jehanne giggled, “You’re not a plushie! Or is it that you want me to play with you?” The second seemed to be the right answer, because as soon as she said it, Swishy swam straight into her arms and began wiggling happily. Jehanne laughed and gave Swishy a careful hug, then began looking around her room. Slowly her smile faded and her ears began to droop a little. Swishy gave a worried little trill.

“It’s not you, Swishy… it’s my toys. None of them are really made for pets that fly.” And it was true. Swishy didn’t have hands or paws to wind things up, or move things around. Even in the petpet store there had been toys for petpets who clawed, or climbed, or crawled… but nothing for petpets that flew. Jehanne frowned, thinking furiously, as Swishy tried to nuzzle up against her cheek and reassure her. It just wasn’t fair; flying petpets deserved toys too.

Jehanne rummaged through her toybox, talking half to herself, half to Swishy. “Aishas are very, very clever. Much more clever than lennys, no matter what the lennys say.” She took out a jingle bell, and carried it over to the closet. She opened the closet, removing a birthday balloon and very carefully removing the weight from the end of the string before tying it to her jingle bell. She released the new combination, watching how the bell now skittered across the floor, partially lifted by the balloon. “More than clever enough to make a toy for a new friend.”

Jehanne swatted at the bell, sending it rolling across the floor in Swishy’s direction with a merry chime. The balloon was tugged along by the bell, and was much closer to Swishy’s level. Bobbing upwards, Swishy butted the balloon with her head, sending it back towards Jehanne. Jehanne cheered, “That’s it, Swishy, you’ve got it!” she batted the bell back, but this time a little away from Swishy so her new friend would have to chase it. Soon the game of bell-balloon was going back and forth across the entire room, to the sound of happy trills, coos, and giggles.

And watching unnoticed from the doorway, Jehanne’s mom decided that maybe a floud hadn’t been such a bad choice after all.


End file.
